Organizational culture is a key driver for long-term IT success.
Founded in 1955, the Van Metre Companies has established itself as a leader in the Greater Washington DC real estate and development industry. Over the last 60 years, the company has developed countless residential neighborhoods and commercial properties that have become woven into the fabric of communities across the area they serve.
To ensure that technology was being utilized most effectively within the organization, Van Metre engaged Hartman Executive Advisors to conduct an assessment of their people, processes and technology.
Through the assessment, Hartman identified opportunities for improving the organizational effectiveness of the IT operation to better support the business, as well as opportunities to improve manufacturing and supply automation.
While manufacturing and supply practices were producing results, IT systems and support were limited, diminishing the value of those practices and causing frustration for the business units. Van Metre was utilizing manual practices for management and reporting of the operational processes, and employees were expending a significant amount of time and effort to maintain accurate data in multiple systems. Hartman’s assessment and subsequent software selection process revealed several opportunities to better leverage current technology and automation to improve efficiency and productivity, as well as new ways to utilize resources within the organization.
With a strategic IT plan in place, Hartman worked in tandem with Van Metre to implement changes to the company’s IT operations and infrastructure that reduced employee frustration, improved end user satisfaction, increased productivity and ultimately helped deliver better value to customers.
Hartman helps Van Metre stay on the cusp of innovation and efficiency by acting as an advisor to their new CIO — a recently promoted IT team member sourced by Hartman — keeping the company up-to-date with the latest software and data sharing systems, and implementing phase two of the manufacturing and financial improvement initiative.